Subj : Re: Packet BBS?
To   : echicken
From : Reverend Shaft
Date : Sat Oct 05 2024 06:15 pm

On 05 Oct 2024, echicken said the following...
 
 ec>  RS> have a digipeater/iGate set up with my SignaLink and Direwolf, but th
 ec>  RS> doesn't see much use. (Far too rural.)
 ec> 
 ec> You'd think that's the problem, but I live in Canada's largest city and
 ec> packet activity here was pretty dismal the last time I checked. There's
 ec> a lot of dude-where's-my-car and weather station noise on APRS, but
 ec> that's about it. There's just not a lot of people making real use of it.

That's sad. I drive through medium and large-size cities every so often and get the occasional APRS ad to check out a certain repeater or website, which is more than I see back home. I guess I hoped there was more local action.

 ec> Perhaps doing something fun / interesting with it would bring people in.
 ec> Well, maybe not so many in the rural spaces.

Interestingly enough, our local club (30 members in a town of 12k-ish people) is very progressive and welcoming of experimentation. No "sad hams" in the group... so maybe this is an ideal testing ground for new and fun!

 ec>  RS> With the restrictions on symbol rate lifted in the States (in favor o
 ec>  RS> bandwidth limit), I'm wondering if there's a good opportunity for
 ec>  RS> developing newer digital technologies on HF. I recognize there are
 ec> 
 ec> I believe people are already working on this, though I haven't checked
 ec> in a while. Recent developments on HF and VHF/UHF were a bit
 ec> disheartening.

I haven't seen anything new. Have any links to share?

 ec> There was "new packet radio" which seemed to require a hardware 
 ec> modem/TNC or data radio, and only one person's implementation 
 ec> available last time I looked.

I hadn't heard of that one. Will ask my close friend Google about that.

 ec> VARA was getting attention, but IIRC is/was closed-source.

Pretty sure that's the one that I (reluctantly) paid for a license for and was mildly disappointed.

I'm of a mixed mind on some of these tactics. If it's an application that is ancillary (like a logging/spotting app or something that displays aggregated data in a unique way), then feel free to keep it to yourself and even charge people for it if you want.

But if it's a data protocol... You are flying your bank account balance in the face of the whole purpose of amateur radio.

 ec> I'd like to think there's something better out there now. It'd be nice
 ec> to see something open and usable with a soundcard.

I'm 100% on board with that. I've had some high level thoughts and ideas to make more effective use of the available bandwidth, but I'm genuinely afraid someone will be like, "Dude, you know how sound and radio work, right?" :)_

73!
WZ8Q

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